The review perfectly describes the film. I really enjoyed..hmm..maybe "enjoyed" isn't the right word...Let's just say that I'm glad I watched it, even after some reviewers saying they hated it. Genuinely scary. Great score. Good acting. Completely mad. A visual treat. Good (even though it's self indulgent) directing. Superbly lit. Brutal. Nightmarish. Best film I've seen in a while for sure.

Obviously not for everyone, but being a Refn fan, I thought it was brilliant. It's one of the best looking films I've seen in a long time. I usually never agree with film critics, but Empire is definitely an exception.

Movies are supposed to be entertaining and thought provoking, this is neither. Just a bunch of art house nonsense. Wise up empire, you are supposed to be guiding the cinema going public as to what to watch of a weekend to be entertained. If empire were a single human being and you recommended this to me, after watching it, i would come round to your house and punch you square in the face. I would give this no stars if i could. AWFUL!!

Well Refn is a very up and down filmmaker. Breeder was excellent, whereas I didn't get the hype with Bronson then Drive really put him back on the map, will be interesting to see how this one goes. Have to say just by the trailer the look seems rather lazy, trying to evoke Lynch can be a dangerous game too.

Since its press screening at this yearís Cannes Film Festival, Nicolas Winding Refnís latest Only God Forgives received a very divided response as it was booed by many of the audience of journalists and critics while also receiving a standing ovation. However, no matter what the reviews are, whether they love it or hate it, as a fan of his 2011 masterpiece Drive I had such anticipation towards it.

Running a Bangkok boxing club which is a front for his familyís drug business, Julian Thompson (Ryan Gosling) discovers that his older brother has been killed, leading to the arrival of his mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) who wants her only living son to avenge his brotherís death, which is apparently at the hands of the Angel of Vengeance Lt. Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm).

One of the many strengths of Drive was that it was a typical LA-based exploitation thriller (scripted by Hossein Amini) that was directed by Refn who came out of European arthouse fare such as the Pusher trilogy. In the case of Only God Forgives which was conceived prior to Drive, it is wholly a Nicolas Winding Refn film, as its story and characters are almost secondary to the visuals displayed stunningly by Larry Smithís cinematography, as well as Cliff Martinezís extraordinarily atmospheric music, reminiscent of Vangelisís score for Blade Runner.

Now this film could be considered a classic case of ďstyle over substanceĒ, and the negative reviews had criticised it for being pretentious, tedious and outright violent. Regarding the latter, there are moments where you would have to look away such as the most brutal police interrogation ever to be put on screen. At its core, the film is a traditional gangster/revenge thriller and yet what Refn is trying to do is being experimental by telling a story, not through dialogue but through atmosphere, while the Bangkok setting gives the film a unique approach such as the Thai boxing action, as well as presenting some ambiguous ideas, the most notable being Changís supernatural reveal of his katana.

Spiritually continuing his performance from Drive, Ryan Gosling has very little to say as his role is almost entirely based on looks. He is not charismatic but moody, but Goslingís very presence is enough to make him a compelling figure, if not the most compelling figure out of the cast. Being at her most foul-mouthed since Four Weddings and a Funeral, Kristin Scott Thomas plays a truly evil mother who speaks the most appalling dialogue, as displayed in the worst dinner between a mother, her son and his date.

However, it is the extraordinary performance from Vithaya Pansringarm as the Angel of Vengeance that stands out as he is this ambiguous figure who always wears the same clothes, can reveal a sword out of his back, and seems to be truly unstoppable. Yet despite the violent acts he displays towards his victims, Chang is at his most bizarre when singing karaoke, which caused numerous chuckles in the screening I went to.

While itís clearly not for everyone and does require a level of patience particularly in its lone moving shots, but Nicolas Winding Refnís latest is an extraordinary fairy tale that is brutal and uncompressing, as well as being beautifully shot and even worth listening to, in terms of its amazing music.

beautiful movie, Ryan Gosling plays the silent type character again but nowhere near as likeable as in Drive, actually everything about this movie is obviously not nearly as good as the 2011 mini masterpiece... right?

What was so good in this film that it deserved 5 stars,it was boring,pointless shite,also silly in a few places.the only thing I did like about the movie was the end credits,seriously empire,hire a different reviewer

This is also the first Empire five star that has me completely baffled as to how you came to "FIVE" stars. I could understand three.....maybe four as it seems people are into this film on a level.

An Irish reviewer gave it a rave reception as well, saying that "art has to divide audiences, if it doesn't then what's the point". What a load of bullshit in my opinion. Art is about communication, and the best artists in history were excellent communicators. But here Winding Refn isn't just testing the audience's patience, he's not making the audience work or think, he's laughing at us. Which is a shame. It makes me think he's gone so far inside himself that he doesn't care about those devoted to his career and his imagination.

There isn't even a film here to decipher. We get it, now enough with the red corridors and give us something to relate to. AND there lies the problem, we get what he's trying to say with every shot but he just pushes it too far.

Oh 'God' I wanted to like this film, I wanted to LOVE it.......but there was just boredom, frustration and then sadness asIi realise Winding Refn has turned, like so many other people who reach success early, to masturbation. The cum shot being the final karaoke scene with cop/angel of death/devil/god character. It sprayed all over the audience in the cinema, with everyone leaving not disgusted but sniggering, knowing they have been duped. It was a good one.

There is good acting(Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm), great cinematography and a wonderful soundtrack and the premise of the story was great.......... and still it was squandered. it proves that all those ingredients don't make a good film. It seems to me that Winding Refn has severed his connection with humanity, that connection he had with his previous excellent films (maybe that's why they were excellent) and so humanity can't connect with him and this latest offering.

No Time travelling robots...not a sequel of a rebooted idea cg'd to hell...this film is definately marmite however, I took enough from it to be happy with the end result...I DO THINK that it has been overly hyped for its violence and theme, which may have been its chief enemy...that and most people thought it would be Drive 2...If you take Drive out of his CV and watch NWR's other films it is quite consistent with his style...if you have not watched it maybe take a risk over some of the other Summer Fodder

Wanted to like this so much but end result just baffled me, the issue I found was lack of dialogue and exposition just left me thinking what the hell is going on why is he doing that what is the motivation here, just no explaination as to a lot of the characters actions. I will remember this film due to the violence and performances despite lack of dialogue, it still makes an impact, but compared to this Drive is a masterpiece.

And as for the scene where Byron Gibson gets tortured being the most brutal police torture scene, I thought it was so over the top as to be funny. "The most brutal police interrogation ever to be put on screen"? Watch more Miike, there's a worse one in Shinjuku Triad Society methinks.

I watched a lot of this with half closed eyes, and there were a couple of female Ryan gosling fans who walked out of this, as it wasn't what they expected on a Saturday night. I'd give this 3 to 4 stars, but I have to say its still percolating in my head, and I woke up at 3 am with images of it still in my head. The is a sense of violence and tension from the very start, and it's a relief to get out if red bathed rooms into daylight. The cinematography is great, the violence is terrible and unflinching, and the acting is kind of stilted. But this is a dark dream of a movie, clearly not mainstream, and I was shocked my local world of cine even showed this. It's not a film to be liked, and the characters have to be interpreted, but there is much here to ponder on, if you want to spend the time.

I really wanted to love this film, being a fan of all Refn's earlier works, however I would give this 3.5/5. As frustrating as it was amazing. Good points - the score, the cinematography, the atmoshpherics, the standout scenes (fight scene, 'training' scene etc). Bad points - the editing (e.g. the scene when Gosling has an altercation with 2 men in a bar - when you feel the scene is building in-line with Gosling's rage, as past events look to have built up into an explosion of violence from him - the scene is inexplicably cut short - which I thought was unforgivable from Refn). The dialogue is very poor in places. I realise that this film is all about atmospherics and conveying the story with as little dialogue as possible, but I thought it was very lazy in places, and I longed for 1 scene between Gosling and the Angel of Vengeance where more than 3 words might be spoken - and it looked like it might happen at the end.............! But no, the scene is cut short again. Cheers. So it is that Nicolas Winding Refn does David Lynch, reminiscent in feel of Lost Highway or Inland Empire, with mixed results. I for one would go see a film like this every time over your usual action/blockbuster shite, and enjoyed seeing the 4 people walk out. A film that provokes this much discussion and debate is always a good thing, and I for one, am looking forward to watching it again (preferably without people muttering "what's going on", "I don't understand" or "I'm completely lost" etc etc)

Can't beleave you gave this a 5 star review sure some of the action scenes were pretty cool just that most of the rest of it was so slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Gosling was like in a haze for most of it & the only real stand out was Scott-Thomas I'll agree it was beautifully shot just at 90mins it seemed well overlong & ploding though weirdly if it'd been longer with more backstory into the mother/son(s) relationships it could've been so much more. On the whole a solid 3 stars you just feel that with maybe a bit more effort this could've truly been a 5 star film.

What's great about when a film like Only God Forgives comes out is some of the hilarious responses by people that hated it. My favourite is the one where people deny the fact that film is a subjective medium, and that any opinion on it is as valid as any other. All of the people going manic about Damon Wise's review: at least he went to the trouble to say why he enjoyed the film. Most of you are coming off as ignorant.

The film is almost beyond description. It's beautiful and mesmerising and ponderous and up itself and unforgettable. I haven't seen someone portray the darkness of the human psyche on screen like that for a long time. (I know that sounds a bit pretentious, but it's a little hard not to sound that way when discussing this film).

I thought there were some fascinating religious overtones throughout and it was refreshing to see a revenge thriller put across in such a unique and ethereal way. Not everything worked, and I wasn't as engaged as I was when I first watched a lot of Lynch's stuff (the comparisons are inescapable), but I think the film deserves applause for being challenging and toying with expectations as well as being incredibly shot, acted, filmed and scored. I can understand just about any response to the film, but I wish people would take 2 minutes to justify their opinions before they slate a reviewer/publication.

What's great about when a film like Only God Forgives comes out is some of the hilarious responses by people that hated it. My favourite is the one where people deny the fact that film is a subjective medium, and that any opinion on it is as valid as any other. All of the people going manic about Damon Wise's review: at least he went to the trouble to say why he enjoyed the film. Most of you are coming off as ignorant.

The film is almost beyond description. It's beautiful and mesmerising and ponderous and up itself and unforgettable. I haven't seen someone portray the darkness of the human psyche on screen like that for a long time. (I know that sounds a bit pretentious, but it's a little hard not to sound that way when discussing this film).

I thought there were some fascinating religious overtones throughout and it was refreshing to see a revenge thriller put across in such a unique and ethereal way. Not everything worked, and I wasn't as engaged as I was when I first watched a lot of Lynch's stuff (the comparisons are inescapable), but I think the film deserves applause for being challenging and toying with expectations as well as being incredibly shot, acted, filmed and scored. I can understand just about any response to the film, but I wish people would take 2 minutes to justify their opinions before they slate a reviewer/publication.

Saw this last night and was going to post my thoughts, but you've pretty much summed up everything I would have said. A solid 4 star film for me,

The following is a review and thoughts that contain spoilers and stuff...

This film has been my most anticipated for, honestly, about a year. My expectations had changed multiple times before seeing it, since early reports hinted at it being like a sequel to Drive, then later reviews stating that it was actually nothing like it. When I heard that this was going to be more akin to Refns earlier work like Fear X and Valhalla Rising, I was actually pleasantly surprised. As much as I loved Drive, I didnít want to see a carbon copy of that again. And I didnít.

Actually, what I got was a mixture of Driveís stylistic and thematic qualities mixed with the arthouse and symbolism drenched earlier movies, and I absolutely loved every second of it.

First of all, the film on the surface has a very simple revenge driven plot, something that must have been influenced by Korean movies such as Oldboy or the other movies in the Vengeance trilogy. Not that they did that story first, but in the way that they bulk it up with style and violence. Gosling is Julian, a drug dealer who operates a boxing club as a front for all of his other operations, his brother is killed and heís sent out to get revenge by his manipulating mother. On the surface, thatís pretty much the entire plot. But if youíre willing to dig deeper, if youíre willing to look beneath the surface, itís Ďa little bit more complicated than thatí, to steal a quote from the film.

The film is a deeper, more complex beast than itís been marketed as. And I certainly donít think anything is as it appears to be. Itís ultimately a film about one manís struggle with life, with his beliefs and his past, but itís shown through a plethora of visual metaphors, brilliantly portrayed symbolism and violence.

The world Refn has created here is that of a nightmare, a dream world disguised behind the lights of Bangkok. Itís a world that is not a pleasure to be in, somewhere that feels like violence or even death is constantly around the corner, or in Julianís case, right behind the door. This is a world created to symbolize the life that the character is living. Julianís mother, who is a vile, manipulative and despicable person played to perfection by Scott Thomas, is the catalyst for all of it. She reveals towards the end of the film a very dark detail about Julianís past, and I believe this is where the whole film stems from. Julian has committed this unthinkable act, probably manipulated into doing it by his mother, and the film is all a way to show the mental struggle and the way one would have to live with something like that. Itís a film about someone living their lives every day in fear and in conflict with themselves and their inner demons.

There are sequences where continuity and logic are totally thrown out of the window in order to tell the story through visuals rather than narrative or dialogue. It feels like weíve been thrust head first into this alternate reality, where we are forced to adapt to itís language almost. I firmly believe that every sequence meant something important in the larger scheme of things. You just have to be willing to go along with it, follow it and read every detail, and for me, after thinking on it for a good few hours after watching it, most stuff in the film makes sense in context with what I think Refn was trying to portray. Itís not only the dream like Lynchian sequences that do this, but almost every sequence in the film. Iíll go into spoilers later as far as analysing some of the separate scenes etc.

Thatís not to say that all the film is, is a super arty affair. It is very artistic, surreal and complex, but even taken as a simple revenge story like it appears to be on the surface, I still thought it held up itís end. It has a seemingly clear narrative that if youíre not one of the people whoís going to try and read in to this, itís fine and should provide some form of entertainment. Then again, the slow pace, lack of dialogue and at first seemingly random moments will obviously not be for everyone.

The cinematography, lighting and editing canít be overlooked here, no matter what you think of the film as a whole. Itís mesmerising. Everything is bathed in red so as to add to the nightmare vision, I donít think even Lynch or Noe have used this much of one colour before to hammer a point home. Refnís always had a fascination with the colour, and he uses it brilliantly here. Corridors and rooms are swamped in it, as Julian is led down these routes further into the colour, and further into the nightmare. It almost feels like a relief when weíre let out of the red rooms and the red and blue lit streets on the few occasions that Refn lets us take a breather from that reality.

There is clearly at force at work in the film, a higher power that the character of Julian is fighting with. It comes in the shape of Chang, the cop that stalks Julian in his visions. An amazing creation, this clearly isnít a human, itís a supernatural force that canít be stopped. Here is a Ďmaní that magically pulls a samurai sword from his back, he appears from nowhere, and he is everywhere. Julian sees him in his visions, even before heís met him or knows who he is. This is where all of my thoughts might turn into ridiculous ramblings about what this character represents, what heís doing in this world and why everything the two characters do is relevant.

The following contains SPOILERS!

Chang represents the angel of death. The higher power that has been sent to collect Julians soul because itís what has to happen, and Julian finally realises this throughout the film, and ultimately accepts it, as in reality, he canít live with his past anymore. Basically, everything is in an alternate world or reality, much like something like Inland Empire.

Julian sees Chang in his visions as it appears like heís stalking him, and this is where I think Goslingís performance has been totally misunderstood. I actually found the sheer look of fear on his face after seeing Chang to be very effective. He looks genuinely frightened every time he sees him. Itís only after finishing the film that all of these dream sequences become clear. Julian being led towards the door behind which there is only black. Behind that door he sees his future rather than a way out, and he witnesses it flash right before his eyes. He reaches in, and his arm is cut off. That right there is his future and he knows it. That point is hammered home in the next scene when he meets with his brothers killer who is missing an arm courtesy of Chang.

The scene where Gosling literally washes the blood off his hands obviously symbolises the fact that heís done something awful in the past, and itís revealed to be killing his father, and thatís whatís haunting him throughout, he canít live with it and he wants out of the world heís in. I thought the Ďwannaí fight?í scene was brilliant. Julian wantís to give one last shot at facing up to his demons, he wantís to see if he can actually keep going. Chang destroys Julian in the fight, showing Chang to be representative of a force, not a human, and Julian as ultimately not being able to carry on.

The final straw for him was seeing the child involved at the end, showing that he regrets his violent actions, and so he gives in to his demons and sacrifices himself to the angel of death, and so is taken to hell where he knows he belongs for doing what he did. His arms are cut off, and this obviously calls back to the start where he visualises his arm being cut off by Chang as he reaches into the door to try and escape. Heís stuck in that world until he realises his actions and accepts his fate, Until then, heís denied any way out. The dismembering of the arms is so that no more violent actions can be taken by his victims, but this time Julian has sacrificed himself because he canít live with his violent actions and wants rid of it once and for all.

Thatís why the whole film feels like a nightmare, itís representative of living a life you donít want to, being stuck in that world, and the fact that the final scene takes place outdoors, out of the red lights and in the sun light, shows us that Julian has been freed from that world. Again this is a similar theme in Lynchís Inland Empire, and one thatís just as effectively done here for me.

I also think it is a film about finding faith, finding something to believe in, which Julian was never able to find because his actions would always take over, he wasnít able to find God because of this, as well as his past, hence the title of the movie.

Other aspects of the film that I loved were the music, ominous and dreamlike, reaching an awesome climax in the fight scene. The framing of every shot is again, just like in Drive, exceptional. Whether itís filmed down a hallway, through a door frame or in a small room totally swamped in red, it adds to the sense that weíre trapped in the world with Julian.

I actually didnít think this was anywhere near as violent as itís been made out to be, but I do understand the criticisms of it being pointlessly violent on occasions. In Drive, I felt the violence was needed and a very significant part of the film, here I found it much more effective when Refn would cut away from the violence letting us imagine what Chang and Julian were capable of. So when it did show the violence, it felt like an odd mix, like Refn couldnít decide whether to keep it up to us or fully realise it. But in the context of the film I thought maybe it would have been better had it not been shown. Still, it didnít bother me much at all because violence is something that rarely bothers me, and I do feel like Refn knows how much to show when he does show it. The fight scene for example was perfect in what it showed us.

The performances were fine, and I do think the complaints about the lack of story or character are missing the point slightly. Maybe not if you went in just expecting a crime thriller, but then again if you expected that I think that missed the point too. Itís so much more complex than that if youíre willing to dig deeper. The characters are there to symbolise and to act as ways for us to view the world that has been created, and they do that perfectly. I think itís a misunderstood, visually and thematically rich, subversive work of art.

You can say that It didnít mean anything and was a bunch of pointless stylised nonsense with poor characterisation and plot, but I feel like thatís too easy a way to look at this film, because it definitely goes far deeper than what appears on the surface, and I think Refn is a smart enough director to be able to add those themes in there while disguising it as something else. I think he intended the film to be only for the people willing to look beneath. I donít even know if what Iíve talked about is what Refn had in mind, maybe thereís something else that it all meant. Perhaps someone else has a totally different view. But thatís what a lot of great art does, it allows you to see what you want to see and take what you want to take from it.